S'burg grad in Boston: Students tired, anxious and on edge

Friday

Apr 19, 2013 at 9:44 AMApr 19, 2013 at 12:42 PM

12:39 p.m.:

We have been in communication with Tina Hoppe, a 2009 Stroudsburg High School graduate who attends Boston University and has been in a state of lockdown since this morning with more than a dozen roommates.

Here's her latest update:

"We are prepared to hold out until this is all over and the suspect is caught. We can't really leave the building.

"Luckily, we've got groceries for a while. The mood is frustrated and tired, anxious and on the edge. We've been up all night and the news is terribly addicting -- can't fall asleep. As seniors about to graduate, we've all got 100 other things that we should be doing, especially schoolwork and final papers, but we just can't seem to detatch ourselves from the news (sorry mom & dad!).".

12:08 p.m.

"They just said on the news that there is fear that the suspects planted more devices and as everything unfolds it's starting to seem more and more like all of this was kind of calculated -- from robbing the 7-11 to killing the MIT officer, to carjacking and leaving the car owner alive, to the shootout and throwing the explosives, to the chase towards Watertown.

"It's scary to think that it's all still going on."

11:20 a.m.: Hoppe said, she's "definitely anxious for all this to be over, though."

11:16 a.m: We're not stir crazy yet," Hoppe said. "We've got people continually coming into the apartment - open door policy. teammates and fellow classmates and athletes are over. You can't see the floor in our living room because we're all packed in.. but being together with everything else going on outside is making it a bit more bearable."

She says she's staying in communication with family and friends, switching between news stations, calling out important tweets to the group and "trying to make sense of it all."

10:37 a.m.:

Hoppe says she and her roommates are treating the media reports as all being real.

“It's more a question of what is related and what isn't. The hysteria of the whole city being locked down and no one really know what's going on it making everything seem super suspicious.

“They just put UMASS Dartmouth on lockdown because apparently the suspect had a friend there and was just in the dorms the other day, after the marathon.

“We did go outside - the streets are dead. A couple of us ventured outside to get coffee (Bostonians love their Dunkin' Donuts). "

Among those in lockdown in Boston is Tina Hoppe, a 2009 Stroudsburg High School graduate who attends Boston University.

10:24 a.m. :

Hoppe reports:

"We've been in and out of sleep since last night. We got an alert to stay inside and turn on the news from the BU Police at 10:50 p.m. when the MIT cop was shot in Cambridge (directly across the river).

“The sirens have kept us up all night. All of our bedrooms look right down on the Mass Pike and the Charles River, so the police cars and boats have been very loud.

“We're all on edge but trying to stay calm, glued to the TV and Twitter, both of which have tons of information.

“Lots of information coming out about suspicious events all over the city - a suspicious package by the BU Med Campus, controlled detonated bombs by Kenmore Square.

“We haven't been able to leave the apartment so we only know what we are seeing through the windows and on the TV and hearing on Twitter and the police scanner.”

9:45 a.m.

She said they have about 15 people at her apartment and “more keep coming.”

“Our apartment is usually a very communal and busy place, mostly BU athletes (we all live in the same apartment building at 10 Buick St., overlooking the Charles River and Mass Pike),” she tells the poconorecord.com

“We are on the seventh floor and can see most of the city from our apartment because of very large windows. We've been following the news on TV and the police scanner. Sirens have been going off all morning and we've seen 100s of police cars flying up and down the Mass Pike going both towards and away from the city.”

She said that the city has shut down all the public transportation and have been using transit buses to transport police officers.

A four-year member of the Boston University swim team, Hoppe said phone service is very spotty.

She said she had been in touch wth her father by email.

“Was supposed to already be at work at Fenway today in preparation for the Sox game tonight,” she said.